121 22 Dec 2022
Dear All, Just a quick note to wish you Festive Greetings - and a thank you to all of you for showing such sustained interest after all this time. Thank you also to those of you who have been bidding on the eBay auctions. The Animator from the Dolphin sequence has just completed and I will be taking a pause for a Festive break and will restart early in the New Year. The first items will be The Writer (Douglas Adams) from the Dolphins sequence followed by the United Nations. Once upon a time I used to get irritated with people everywhere ripping off H2G2 stuff and tried to make a point of contacting the perpetrators. There was a bunch with an extensive Facebook presence using the Babel Fish artwork to market an electronic device that did exactly as described in H2G2. I kept pointing out to them that as I thought their product was brilliant all they had needed to do was ask. But instead they had just helped themselves so I would carry on asking publicly why they thought theft is acceptable. In the long run I did get a sort of apology as in "it wasn't us Guv, honest, it was our Agency bunch." They did however at least do as Facebook required and removed it from their advertising. Elsewhere sites like REDBUBBLE were overflowing with mugs, T-shirts, prints, phone covers, etc, etc, and on and on. In those days I still had enough energy to bother to contact REDBUBBLE but they were extremely reluctant to listen to anything that might threaten the 80% they were taking. Those sites that did get taken down simply reappeared with a new account a few days later. So I tried contacting the individuals involved to ask if they would be happy if I nicked some of their designs and started flogging them online. Most simply ignored me but there were 2 honourable guys who were extremely apologetic and said they had no idea there was still anyone around who would care. That is of course a good question ! They asked if I would accept a small quarterly percentage of sales even though these were actually minimal. I was not, and am not, concerned with the quantity of dosh involved ... it is the principle of the thing. I have no desire to market T-shirts and mugs etc so I of course agreed and feel I should acknowledge and applaud their honourable behaviour by giving them a bit of publicity - Nick Horne - several pieces he has reconstructed from scratch in Illustrator making them resolution independent. Mike Berry - Mugs with several H2G2 designs. On another matter entirely I have recently been contacted by a member of the mailing list putting forward a proposal for consideration. As requested by Tommy Esson I include below a message from him to you all. I have absolutely no objection to Tommy's proposal and my only comment for your info is that I have scanned every item that has been auctioned since AW_004 in Jan 2011 and have kept all the invoices which include names and addresses. Please do read Tommy's message below and get in touch with him if you would like to. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and I do hope that things around the globe really do start improving for everyone everywhere. Take care - keep well - stay safe - stay SANE ! Rod To be taken off the mailing list please reply with REMOVE in the subject or content. 
Hello fellow collectors! My name is Tommy Esson. I’m a 34-year-old, life-long Hitchhiker’s fan in the US, and started collecting Rod’s animation artwork in 2016. I’ve only won a handful of pieces thus far, but each one elicits an “I can’t believe I own this” feeling, and I’m endlessly boggled by the near-complete survival of this material in the first place when so little else from the show remains. I feel grateful to all of you (even those who’ve outbid me) – for helping to extend this preservation; for providing the incentive and encouragement that’s allowed these offerings to continue; and for simply appreciating the historical and creative value in the fantastic work of Rod and his team. We’re clearly all buying out of love and nostalgia, and you can’t definitively say that about many auctions. The reason you’re hearing from me is that I recently reached out to propose the possibility of forming a “contact group” of collectors from amongst the mailing list who may be interested – voluntarily – in sharing a form of contact with others to maintain some threads of connection between Rod’s art pieces and their whereabouts. I've considered for a while that it may become rather difficult or near-impossible to track down a particular item at a later date, either in order to try to "reunite" elements of a certain sequence or perhaps to one day contribute to a joint exhibition of some kind. By the same token, while I have no particular intention of selling the pieces I've purchased, I would prefer to present the opportunity to you all if I eventually decide to do so. Such contacts could also potentially facilitate trades, or even just queries regarding related pieces that may serve to better contextualize the pieces we own. You may choose to remain anonymous, and that's perfectly fine. But I suspect there are probably some who would similarly appreciate knowing how to get in touch with the relatively small community that treasures and preserves Rod’s artwork. Here’s how I envision it working: Those who would like to join may email me at tesson@vt.edu and specify contact info of your choosing (email, phone, social media, whatever) that you are comfortable sharing within the group. You can also include – if desired – your name, a list of pieces in your collection, and/or a “wish list” of previously-sold items you’re interested in acquiring – totally up to you. I will then compile the information into a reference document and send that out to the contact group members. This will not be publicly posted anywhere; it will just remain privately exchanged amongst those individuals who reach out to me. Thanks for reading! - Tommy |